00:00Talking big takeaways from the weekend.
00:03March Madness, no Cinderella.
00:06Big weekend for the Big Ten.
00:08Six of the 16 teams.
00:09And yeah, Michigan, Michigan State.
00:10We talked about it a week ago.
00:12Could they?
00:13Could you imagine?
00:14Would they meet for a national title?
00:17One step closer.
00:19Let's get to Dave in Clinton Township.
00:20Dave, good morning.
00:22Hey, fellas.
00:22So, a couple things.
00:23Number one, I'm not too upset that there's no Cinderella.
00:26Because number one, if you have a Cinderella or two every year,
00:29it kind of lessens what a Cinderella is supposed to be.
00:31We also don't have to listen to everybody saying,
00:33oh, we need to expand the field every year.
00:37Okay?
00:38Okay.
00:39So, and just because a team's small doesn't mean they're not any good.
00:43Okay?
00:43So, that doesn't necessarily mean they're a Cinderella just because we haven't heard of them.
00:46Yeah, I never heard of Gonzaga until, like, they were a Cinderella one year
00:49and it kind of turned their whole college around.
00:52But those days are gone.
00:54All right?
00:54Everybody knows everybody now because of the Internet and stuff like that.
00:56But, so, I'm cool with having a Cinderella once every 10 years.
01:01Oh, see, I would feel like that kind of, the tournament is built on the idea,
01:06the mystique of March is that we have the little guy pop a couple, pop a couple Goliaths.
01:13The tournament is built on gambling and good basketball.
01:16Oh, if it was built on good basketball, do best of sevens.
01:20Let fewer teams in and do best of sevens.
01:23That's how we'd get the best basketball and we'd crown the most deserving champion.
01:26But that's not how the tournament's built.
01:27It's single elimination.
01:28It's flawed.
01:29It's imperfect.
01:30Right, and if you're just going to get to the second weekend, it's always going to be chalked.
01:32Then just go back to 32.
01:34Right, yeah.
01:34I mean...
01:35Can a situation be a Cinderella?
01:38We have four teams in the Final Four of the Big Ten.
01:40Can that be a Cinderella situation?
01:42The richest conference in college athletics getting Final Four teams is supposed to be a Cinderella story?
01:48No, I mean, it can be a story.
01:50It could be a room in New York, maybe, but...
01:52Sure.
01:52But, Dave, I think we're confusing.
01:54Like, you can still find rich stories in the tournament, and they're going to need to have more of them
01:58because I don't think they're going to get what the tournament has been built on.
02:02The marketing for this tournament is always chaos, upsets, Cinderella.
02:08I mean, there's plenty of good stories, right?
02:10It's can Rick Barnes get past the Sweet 16 now that he's there against Iowa State?
02:15Can Alabama, I didn't think that they would be here in the Sweet 16 playing against Michigan
02:21without their No. 2 score, and it's Nebraska having won two games finally,
02:25having never won an NCAA tournament game before, Iowa being there and them playing against each other.
02:30Like, there's plenty of stories.
02:32Well, that's what this guy says.
02:33He goes, how about Nebraska as a pseudo-Cinderella?
02:36They had never won a tournament game, and now they're in the Sweet 16, Aaron and Livonia.
02:40Yeah, I mean, you can come up with some great stories.
02:43I think that was a great way to put it.
02:44There's no shortage of storylines, but there's no Cinderella.
02:47You can't say a team from the Big Ten is a Cinderella.
02:50Right, and you can't say Texas, even with an 11 next to their name, is a Cinderella.
02:55Guys, do we ignore Siena came close to taking down Duke?
02:57This would be a different story.
03:00Sure, yeah.
03:02Well, if High Point had beat Arkansas, it'd be a different story.
03:06Yeah, if Cinderella's happened, then they would have happened.
03:09Yeah, if Hawaii had originally beat Arkansas, then you would have had Hawaii against High Point,
03:14and then one of them would have been a de facto Cinderella.
03:16No Cinderella because sleeper players are getting picked up by NIL.
03:20That's Alex and Romeo.
03:21Yeah, it's NIL.
03:23It's originally a transfer portal where these kids, if you're at a mid-major and you have a good freshman
03:29year,
03:29maybe a good couple of years, then all of a sudden, hey, you jump up to one of the big
03:32boys
03:33because you want more notoriety.
03:35You're shot at the big leagues.
03:37Now, it's those schools also being able to pay you more than anybody mid-major can.
03:43Like, an example would be like if Yaxl had to stay at UAB for another year.
03:47Right.
03:47I feel like they would have been a team that could have made a run.
03:50Not like to the Final Four or anything, but like, you know, the right first-round matchup
03:53and you get out of the opening weekend.
03:55Instead, he's highly compensated and he's the Big Ten Player of the Year,
03:58and he had several highlight plays as Michigan pummels people.
04:04St. Louis could have been a team that could have gone on a little bit of a run,
04:09even though they were a nine seed.
04:11Nobody's looking at St. Louis as, oh, wow, there's a powerhouse.
04:14But with the right matchups, you know, if they hadn't run into a buzzsaw in Michigan,
04:19with the way that they shoot threes, the way they play defense,
04:22they could have been a Sweet 16 team.
04:24It's just a matter of seeding.
04:25Like, how about this?
04:26They would have been a team you would have thought, hey, they used the portal, by the way.
04:30Yeah.
04:30They got the great guy.
04:31Yeah.
04:32Milk Chamberlain.
04:33And here's the problem.
04:35Guy went three of 13.
04:37Yeah.
04:37Didn't make a shot inside the arc.
04:39Couldn't figure out where the ball was.
04:41Mars got it over here, and then it's over here.
04:44Texas is a mediocre team.
04:46They're double-digit guys, and Iowa needed two upsets to win.
04:50They're also mediocre.
04:51I think those are both Cinderella's.
04:56Again, Iowa has the story of they haven't been to the Sweet 16 since 1999.
05:00Fran McCaffrey never did it.
05:02Immediately move on.
05:03You get a proven winner at multiple levels, and here they are.
05:07You can like the story.
05:08I'm just never going to think a team from the richest conference in college sports is a Cinderella.
05:14Yeah.
05:14Cinderella's got a slingshot, right?
05:16Cinderella's humble beginnings.
05:18Very little to work with.
05:19Cinderella has the university profile.
05:23This is their enrollment.
05:24This is where they're from.
05:25These are some famous alumni.
05:27Right.
05:29248-539-9797.
05:32We're going to get into some Lions talk at 835 because we have somebody on the beat that says the
05:38heavy lifting's done.
05:40Have they failed free agency?
05:41Have they failed free agency?
Comments